Jason McClain

Episode 11: Creating a Vision and a Possibility for Your Prospects

In this episode of Evolutionary Sales, Jason explains how clients and prospects do not buy a service and they do not buy a product. What they purchase is a vision and/or a possibility. What they purchase is a solution to a problem. What they purchase is a result.
In this episode you will learn how to tie in a vision for the prospective client to step into and relate it directly to what assisting them in achieving their desired outcome will create in their life and in their business.
Your ability to master this mindset and set of linguistic skills will be the difference that makes the difference for you in the 21st Century Marketplace as well as in the sales process-as this step is where the sale is actually made-and where the relationship can be opened effortlessly.
More details on this episode go to http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/evolutionary-sales/episode011-vision-possibility.html

Transcript

Episode 11: Creating a Vision and a Possibility for Your Prospects

Jason McClain: Welcome to Evolutionary Sales. I’m your host, Jason McClain, and your guide in the 21st century market place. I’m excited about this episode because we’re gonna get into some really creative languiging. And really kind of the essence, like this is where the sale actually happens, the relationship gets opened. And uh, we’re gonna talk about how to build vision impossibility because one of the things I’m a firm believer in is that people don’t buy a service or a product. Nobody does. They, they buy what they think is possible through that product or service. And it could be that their trying to solve a problem, and so their really focused on this problem they want solved. But mostly what they, what they want is they want the solution. And so your in the business and it doesn’t matter if you’re, if your selling yourself as a, as a film composer, musical score composer, and I actually have a question from one of those today on the show, or if you’re selling cars. It doesn’t matter what, you’re providing a solution, you’re providing a vision and you’re providing a possibility, and that’s what people will step into. And we’re gonna talk about how to create that today.

Jason McClain: Most other artists have trouble accepting, they resist the fact that they have to sell their services, they, they resist the fact that they, their really, they have to sell and market first. You can be the best composer or have the best product in the world, and if you’re unwilling to accept the fact that you have to engage people and enroll them in the, this vision impossibility that it can provide for them, well then you’ll be a brilliant, starving person. And typically, a number will pop out of their mouth, anywhere between five times what you’re gonna be charging to something like “Uh, it’d be priceless.” And its at that moment where you go “Great, what do we need to do to make move forward?”, or if it’s a one on one situation and their the person who actually is the decision maker in the financial aspect, you slide an agreement in front of them right at that moment.

Jason McClain: So to summarize the series so far before we get into listener mail, whether you’re, whether you’re joining us now for the first time and you’re just listening to this, or you’re, you’re doing what they call “stacking and snacking”, which is where you download a whole series of pod casts and spend a whole afternoon on it, or whether you’ve been subscribed from the start, these pod casts are recorded in order, and their stacking on each other. And it’s a process, it’s a whole process, the Evolutionary Sales process, and each of these steps is critical in and of itself and they happen in order. Now once you’ve listened to it through once the whole way, and maybe even listened to it a second time, maybe you even listened to it a third time, then you can hop around. Sometimes you can just listen to something and you, and you hear a distinction differently than you heard it before, or you hear one that you just completely missed before because you were lost in your, your own thoughts about how to apply the previous distinction that was just exposed to you. Or, or because you’re deeper or more complex or you have a set of conditions or circumstances that allows you to hear it in a way that you didn’t hear it before. Whatever the case may be, this will be a resource to you for years, truly. There are audio products that I listened to a decade ago that I listen to now and I’m blown away by them all over again, largely because I have the more complex internal structures. And so it will be with you. And so, don’t make the mistake that people make by thinking that they can listen to something one time and then get it. First of all, I’ve, I’ve reinforced over and over again that this is a set of skills, whether, even if its an emotional aspect of it, it’s a set of skills in that you’re learning how to navigate your own interiors and you’re learning how to navigate the internal structures of someone else when you’re in communication. That takes a lifetime to master. In fact, if you just do away with the idea of ever being a master, while mastering all these tools, then you’ll be way ahead of the competition because you’ll always have that beginners mind or that, that learners mind, that student mind. So first we talk about foundational work, background work, doing the emotional work. This never stops, you, you might have to manage your state every single day. You might go through a rough spot in your life and you need to go clean yourself out or clear yourself out, clear out those imprints in your nervous system, or, or in traditional psycho therapy, those kishtals. And that’s fine; it’s just part of your maintenance. You can’t expect to stay in good shape physically without going to the gym or exercising. And so it is with your mind and your emotions. So you do the foundational work, the personal work. Then you set your goals, you have smart outcomes. Then you engage the other, you develop repertoire, whether its on the phone or whether its in person. You learn how to use questions to not only establish what the gap is that you are supposed to help them cross so that they can get what they want, but also what’s been stopping them so that you can design an appropriate intervention, give them an appropriate product or provide an appropriate service custom tailored to them. You’re engaged in permission selling; you’re constantly getting permission, you’re constantly checking in. You’re using tag questions. For instance, “this makes sense, doesn’t it?”, so that you can continually tie that agreement and make sure they’re essentially still with you as you move forward. You’re developing units of value meaning, as well as units of conviction, so that you can repetitively have the client confirm that you’re on the right track and that they see value in your product or service that you’re offering them, that you’re suggesting that they take on. So, that’s, that’s the brief summary so far. Let’s get into the next piece, which is something that I’m really happy about. Before we do that though, we have a question from a listener. This is from, from Matt G. for Gates. Matt’s a film composer, and uh, you can see his website at symphonicuproar.com. And by the way Matt, I listened to a few of your clips and there’s some, there’s some pretty fun stuff in there, I love the fun quirky category. Um, but you know, so Matt asked, he says “First of all, um, I have just started my career as a film composer. As a film composer, every job I get is started from a sales oriented position in that I’m selling myself and my services.” Now, first of all Matt I want to say that just that, accepting that alone puts you far and ahead of most other artists. Most other artists have trouble accepting, they resist the fact that they have to sell their services, they resist the fact that their, their really, they have to sell and market first. You can be the best composer and have the best product in the world, and if you’re unwilling to accept the fact that you have to engage people and enroll them in this vision impossibility that it can provide for them, well then you’ll be a brilliant starving person. A brilliant, broke entrepreneur. So congratulations to you, that’s a, that’s an incredible, an incredible distinction to have accepted already. And so now to the meat of your question. Matt asks, “I use email to get past the 95 to 90% of people who aren’t a match quickly. I send out emails to 200 to 500 production companies or directors a day when I’m in the looking for work mode. I get about a 20% response rate and the vast majority of those responses say ‘We’re not looking right now, but we will keep you in mind if a need arises in the future’ and a few respond ‘Yes, but we have no money’, etc., etc., etc.” Firs of all, that’s a lot of work, uh, and, and I hope you’re using some sort of, um, mail merge program or something. The other thing I would say is that a mentor a long time ago for me said email simply doesn’t make a difference, and in fact, you know Matt, I’m actually surprised that you’re getting about a 20% response rate. I think that’s great that they’re responding at all. And I think it may actually be better if you just pick up the phone and just, just use the phone. And while I can’t say for certain in your industry which one will be more effective, try, try the phone for a couple of weeks and then track those results and compare it with the results you’re getting from the email. And when you get on the phone make sure you’re asking really powerful questions like, you know, you don’t even need to tell them what you do at first, just say “Who makes the decisions about, you know, about your musical scores?” or “Who’s in charge of x, y or z?”. And if, again, using those, those techniques, like getting past a gate keeper, if they say “Well, you know, who are you with, or what do you do?”, say “Well, I’m really just, you know, I’d love to answer that and I’m really just curious who’s in charge of blank or who makes the decisions on, on blank?”, whatever it is, for you it’s, it’s film scores. So, what I would say is I don’t know, and what we do is we test, we track, and of course, like uh, like I mentioned before you create a flow chart for your business and you simply, you know, engage in hash marks all day long, you track everything. Put that in a spread sheet and look at it over time to see which method has been more effective. Ultimately in my experience email doesn’t make a difference, um unless it’s at least followed up by a phone call. But, but typically email is just too easy to not respond to, um, which is why I’m shocked you’re actually getting 20%. And we’re also looking at a question of volume versus quality, in terms of your, your contacts, your lead generation and then your contacts. So I hope that answers your question. Uh, thanks for writing, Matt. And, Matt, you get a free cover for your iPod from ifrogz.com, i f r o g z dot com. And I want to remind all of you listening that these pod casts will begin to be driven by your questions, and I, I thrive on questions of application or contextualization, different industries, because this whole system is designed at a level where it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, as I’ve said. So the next piece in the puzzle, the next part of the process, the next step in Evolutionary Sales. The next step is creating vision impossibility for somebody, and here’s how you do that. After you’ve built units of meaning and units of conviction, what you then do is you go back to their outcomes and you ask them “Well if you had x, y and z, or if we accomplished or achieved together x, y and z, or if I could provide for you a solution to x, y or z problem, what would, what would that make possible in your business?” Or maybe it’s “What would that make possible in your life?” And you will get them to, they’ll start to talk, and they will start to talk in a way that, it’ll, it’ll be abstract, but they will be big, grand things. And some, some answers I get are “Well, wow, I mean almost anything, jeez.” And, and it’s, it’s not that I’m saying I can work miracles, it’s just that I know I can help them produce the results that they want to produce in their life, and what that is a gateway for, or what that opens up, is a tremendous amount of possibility in relationships and business, for the bottom line, for their fulfillment. And, then what you do is you say “Well, what else would it make possible? What else would it make possible?”, and you get three or four or five really juicy things on them, it might be “Well I’d finally have harmony on my, on my corporate team.”, or “Gosh, you know, my wife would finally be happy with, you know, blank.”, or whatever the case may be, whatever the context is for your business, but ultimately, people aren’t buying a product or service, they’re buying a solution, they’re buying a vision, they’re buying a possibility. So you get them to, to lay out three or four or heck even five grand possibilities that it will create if they achieve that outcome. And then you, you ask them and, you know, depending on the context you might laugh and shrug and say, it’s almost a silly question but, “What would that be worth to you? What would that be worth to you?” And typically, a number will pop out of their mouth, anywhere between five times what you’re going to be charging, to something like “Uh, it’d be priceless.” And its at that moment, where you go “Great, what do we need to do to make, move forward or, if it’s a one on one situation and they’re the, the person who actually is the decision maker in the financial aspect, you slide an agreement if front of them right at that moment. Now, we’ll get into reframing next week, isolating concerns and reframing those concerns because sometimes people have some concerns, but, but I have to tell you, after having developed the system to this degree, up to this step, I rarely, if ever, get anybody who doesn’t simply sign an agreement for me, and nobody signs an agreement with me for less than a six month package, so it’s a significant financial investment. But it’s an insignificant financial investment compared to, or contrasted against what it will make possible in their life and what that would be worth to them. One of the techniques I, I actually employ is I don’t, I don’t even talk about my rates, I don’t publish my rates, and my policy is to not discuss my rates until I’ve met with somebody and we actually get to this process, this part of the process. And my, my rates, of course, are, are up front in that they’re in the agreement, they’re very clear, the numbers are all there, the numbers are all worked out per session and over the course of the entire agreement, so it’s all very clear. But I am not a commodity; what I, what I provide for people is a solution, perhaps a solution they’ve been looking for with other practitioners for years and have been unable to, unable to achieve it. And because of that, if they, people are, inherently want to shop on price, “Well, how much are you?”, “Well, you know, I’m this much.”, “Oh, well I know this other person who’s less expensive.” And, and, but ultimately I, I, I’ve gotten the feedback I’m actually under priced, and, and I’m overdue for a rate increase. It doesn’t really matter though. It doesn’t , it wouldn’t matter if I was five dollars or five hundred dollars an hour, I don’t want them to make a decision based on price at all. I want them to make a decision based on the value that my service will bring to their lives, and that can only happen after we’ve had an in-depth discussion, done needs analysis, gap analysis, built division impossibility, then, then it’s appropriate to talk about money. Only then. Okay, now I’m really firm in that policy too, and let me tell you why. Again, it’s not because I’m afraid to publish my rates, cause my rates are actually very reasonable, especially for the value that they provide. But it’s a best service to the client. It’s a best service to the client for them to go into the questions that I ask them and spend, you know, an hour or two in making sure that we’re right for each other. And then making sure that what they, they want to achieve I can assist them in that. And, and for them to be clear on why they’re doing it, what the purpose of, of it is, and what it would create in their lives. And then, of course, the money is insignificant unless they’re, they absolutely have no business at all being in my office and they’re not financially qualified, which happens occasionally but its rare. Ultimately, people know they want to invest in themselves. And whether your business is real estate or selling cars or providing corporate training, whatever it is, you focus on the vision impossibility and the solution you’re providing and what that’s worth, that is where people want to sign on the dotted line, and that’s where you get to open a relationship and do good in the world and provide service. One more, one more point on that. There’s a, an emotional curve, and, and lets say that there’s, there’s two axis’s; now there’s the vertical axis and its intensity, emotional intensity, and the horizontal axis on the bottom, its, you know, it’s a graph, on the bottom would be duration or time. And peoples emotions, and they, they buy on vision impossibility, excitement, emotion, feeling good, wanting to resolve a problem, things like this, but its largely emotional, and then they just have to work out the details with their rational mind, their logical mind. If you let them walk out after building vision impossibility without signing on the dotted line or making the decision to not sign, which is equally as appropriate, depending on what would be of most service to them, well then you’ve done them a disservice because what happens is they begin to forget. Their memory begins to fade, their emotional intensity decreases. And ultimately, it becomes easy for them to talk themselves out of it. Personally, I almost, there are times where I really don’t care if someone signs or not, but I care that they make a decision in my office before they leave when we’ve done that complimentary exploratory session. You’ll do them a disservice, again, if you allow them to walk out. And I, I just tell them that. Some people go “You know, can I think about this?” and I go “Well, you know, actually, actually no, here’s what’s going to happen if you think about it.” and I explain what I just explained and I also give them some statistics and uh, again unless, unless their financially, fully unqualified, then they, they see the wisdom in that and they, they typically sign. I, I have to sometimes reframe some concerns to get myself to that hundred percent mark and we’ll talk about those powerful tools next week, reframing concerns after their isolated. Thank you for listening to Evolutionary Sales. Keep those questions coming, keep emailing me. You can email me at [email protected], there’s two l’s in personallifemedia.com. For transcripts of this show or any other shows on the Personal Life Media network, please visit personallifemedia.com, again there’s two l’s in personallifemedia.com. I’m Jason McClain, your host and your guide in the 21st century market place